|
As Non-Wing Sprint Cars seem to be on a comeback in Northern California, Petaluma Speedway hosted it's first injected 360 Non-Wing Sprint Car Race on October 13th. The Adobe Cup attracted 18 sprint teams who were informed at the drivers meeting that the track was left dry & slick intentionally to give the regular Spec Sprint competitors more of a chance against the injected cars. Sebastopol's Geoff Ensign was quick time in the VanLare #5v over Santa Rosa's, Marty Hawkins, Sparky Howard, Nick Larsen, and Colton Slack. Ensign made quick work of Heat Race #1 as he picked up the win over Jim Richardson. Colton Slack won Heat Race #2 over Klint Simpson, and Billy Aton beat Scotty Dupont to the checkers in Heat Race #3. With no cushion to lean on, the feature event quickly went single file as the beautiful red #32 of Colton Slack took the early lead from his outside front row starting spot. Pole sitter, Billy Aton slid into second as Marty Hawkins worked his way into third when Nick Larsen encountered troubles early. Running in fourth place, Sparky Howard felt the pressure of teammate Geoff Ensign all race long, as Ensign repeatedly tried the outside of turns 1 & 2 on every restart. Throughout the race Hawkins pulled to the inside of Aton twice coming off turn four but didn't have enough to complete the pass. With about 6 laps to go Colton Slack appeared to hook the inside berm and turned around, handing the lead to Aton. On the final restart Aton brought em' down slow and stacked the field behind him coming off turn four. Geoff Ensign used it to his advantage as he got alongside Howard and passed him going into turn one, but with only a few laps left, third was as far as he could get. Billy Aton took the win with 19 year old Marty Hawkins in second and Ensign in third. It didn't sound like any of the three drivers were very happy with the track, as they all made comments in their trackside interviews. Aton was happy to be in victory lane. Marty Hawkins said he flew home from Southern California (where he is a junior in college) just to race in Petaluma. He said he wished they raced more injected non-wing shows just 15 minutes from home. All in all, it was a good night of racing and if there had been a little cushion, Ensign would have surely made it a three car battle to the end.
David Bell, Sprint Spat Assoc. XXIX 2012
|
